And as promised, here are the results for round 2, this Saturday evening. This was a really tough round to judge, since there was quite some awesome stuff I received. I had two songs I cearly liked less than the others though, so as per the rules of this roulette, we will say goodbye to two contestants today. Below are the results, ordered from my favourite to least favourite song of the round.

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Through to the next round

Participant: senecadawg2Band – Song: Dynazty – Starlight

This is the song that clearly stood out this round. Highly energentic, great guitar works and those vocals are amazing. Even more quality (rather straight-forward) power metal and I enjoyed this track a lot more than the song you sent last round. This round had some slower songs than the previous, so this track definitely stood out, because of its speed. Some music genres can be very hit or miss with me, but when performed as flawlessly as this one, topped off with a great sing along chorus, there’s nothing that can go wrong. Fantastic submission!

About two weeks ago, I was driving back from a Devin Townsend concert with Onno and I had Agent Fresco playing in the car. That band does very weird stuff with their vocal lines, almost as if the vocalist is a separate entity, disregarding the beat of the music at point. It reminded Onno of Thank You Scientist, a band I’ve seen mentioned before and Onno said I should check them out, because I would like them. Guess what, I got them in my roulette. Hooray! Well, what can I say? I did like this one, a lot! What this band does instrumentally is nothing short of amazing. I really wonder if they can pull off that clarity live, but with a line-up consisting of of an actual violin, saxophone and trumpets, I suppose they could. With that very line-up, this band manages to lay down some very interesting sounds, stuff you wouldn’t otherwise hear in progressive rock. It all sounds very fresh and ‘new’. I suppose the band wants the chorus to be your favourite part of the song, as it’s repeated quite often, but the pre-chorus is far more memorable if you ask me, and the guitar solo that ends with those melodies is a great addition to an already amazing song. Wow, I’m going to listen to this album!

Participant: lonestarBand – Song: IQ – The Road of Bones

I think this one of your favourite bands, is it not? I thought from the start that you would send me a song by IQ at some point in the roulette and I was right. I’ve seen IQ live twice, both times at the Night of the Prog festival, but I can’t really remember much of it. The gist of what happened that evening was that lots of fogeys were singing along to tunes I had never heard before, so it was rather weird standing in that crowd (the exact same thing happened when I saw Marillion, Eloy and Saga at the same festival, so it’s not an isolated case). However, on to the song itself; that was surprisingly awesome. Having never checked out the band, I honestly did not know what to expect, but the build-up is fantastic and you can see this band has been active for a long time by the way every instrument is doing exactly what. A very surprising song that has won me over to check out this band. Thanks

Participant: jingle.boyBand – Song: Alpha Rev – Lexington

I didn’t really expect this sort of stuff from you. In my last roulette, you blasted your way through sending me awesome progressive metal round of round, yet this is something completely different. I just had an enormous ‘duhhh’-moment looking up stuff about this band. I knew I had seen the name pop up before and the singer’s voice already sounded familiar, but dang, this is Casey McPherson, of Flying Colors’ fame, of course! I can actually really appreciate this kind of music and this band pulls it off really well. If Alpha Rev was what Mike and Neal were going by in search of a suitable singer for Flying Colors, I completely understand their choice for Casey. I must say actually, I think he even sounds better in the context of this band’s music than he does in Flying Colors. A very enjoyable song, with lots of nice stuff going on. It’s also fun that the whole song is in 5/4, done in such a way that it doesn’t feel weird at all. Great stuff, I’ll look into this band as well.

Participant: Dr. DTVTBand – Song: Lonely Robot – Are We Copies?

Mister jingle wondered in his message to me whether you would send me Lonely Robot, which you did indeed. Apparently a follow-up from last round’s Kino, as it features the same singer. I must say, I liked the Kino song better, but this one is really good as well. Is the rest of the album worth checking out as well? The main problem this song has however, is probably that it revolves too much around the chorus during the first part. The verses aren’t really that interesting to be honest, but the chorus is very good. The second part of the song is where it really picks up its pace though, and where it really starts to shine. This John Mitchell surely knows how to forge build-ups into songs. This is another album that’s going on the to-listen list. Lucky for me, it’s much easier to find this one than Kino’s Picture.

I didn’t get the Iron Maiden reference you made at first and I was looking up the band members and everything, but then I realised Iron Maiden have a song (and album) called Fear of the Dark. In my mind, ‘dark’ and ‘night’ are two completely different words, but I can see how the comparison is made. However, where Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark is a pretty straight-forward metal tune, this one has a whole lot more going on. I have to admit that this one took quite a while to grow for me. I actually didn’t really enjoy it at first, but with repeat listens, I came to like it a lot more. The best part of this song is by far the chorus and the way all the vocal lines come together at the end. The singer has a really powerful voice as well, which is always a plus for me. A nice song, I wonder if this band has some more to offer as I will check them out eventually!

Talk about sending the same stuff again The doc sent me something from the same mastermind and you’re essentially sending me the same band as last round, but with a different name. Now, I like myself some weird avant-garde stuff (I’m a great fan of Mr. Bungle!), but when it becomes too much, it gets difficult to see what’s really going on in the track. And, let’s face it: this track is just fucking weird and strange. I could probably appreciate this a lot more in the context of the album, or after another 20 listens, but it was a bit much to take in just now, especially when I have to judge it against the other songs in this round. I really think I ought to like it, but it will need more time to sink in. I’ll check out the album this is on eventually, because the band, like Dog Fashion Disco, sounds interesting enough for me to try.

This one is... interesting. And that’s ‘interesting’ almost in a negative way. I think I listened to this band once before, because they have such ridiculous song titles (the title of this song isn’t even the weirdest they have, I can assure you that) and I never really checked them out after that. I don’t really know why, because the stuff this two-man group does is really interesting in a compositional way. I think the band deliberately made this song sound as low-fi as it does, since their other songs sound a lot crisper, and that’s probably my main gripe with this song. The sound of the recording really detracts from the otherwise excellent song. Nice avant-garde stuff they’re doing, but does it really need to sound this badly? It was a nice submission, but one I liked less than some others. I'm curious to see what you'll show up with next, as this is very different from the Gentle Giant track you sent me last round.

Unfortunately eliminated

Participant: Tom BombadilBand – Song: Wings Denied – Generation Y

I can totally understand why you would send me this song as it has everything that should make me like it. However, for some reason it just didn’t click at all for me. I mainly disliked the vocals and this song didn’t give me a good initial impression with the growls at the start. This song sounded way too busy overall, although the production as well as the playing is ridiculously tight. This band takes the idea of the melodic djent-riff to a higher level, which is something I can definitely appreciate, but the sound of the band wasn’t for me. I might check out the full album sometime in the future, but from all songs I got this round, this one (almost) did the least for me. As for this roulette; I’m sorry, but you have been eliminated.

Participant: SaculBand – Song: Throne of Chaos – Acid Highway

This is straight-forward heavy metal, which isn’t really a problem in itself, but this song doesn’t really have anything going on that makes me go ‘Wow’, or anything like that, while it does have quite some parts that make me cringe a little. The main riff really isn’t that interesting to fill up the whole song with, the lyrics aren’t very good and the sections with the growls feel very forced and out of place. Then there’s the acoustic chorus, before the final part, it’s all a little too standard, and that just doesn’t do a lot for me. While they’re good at what they’re doing, this was just too generic a song for me to like it, especially compared to some of the other stuff I received this round. I’m sorry, but you are out of this roulette.

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So that’s it. Two people are out and 8 people are left to fight another round. The next round will also see the end for two more people and from then on, only one contestant is eliminated each round. I hope these write-ups give a little insight in my tastes. I’m enjoying a lot of the stuff you guys are sending, so thanks for that! You can send for round 3 now

I didn’t get the Iron Maiden reference you made at first and I was looking up the band members and everything, but then I realised Iron Maiden have a song (and album) called Fear of the Dark. In my mind, ‘dark’ and ‘night’ are two completely different words, but I can see how the comparison is made.

Yeah, that, and also Hallowed Be Thy Name deals with the concept quite similar to this album.

Oh wow! I really thought you would like G?G! As a matter of fact, I've been selling G?G! to nearly everyone I know for a couple of years now, but no one seems interested. I'm starting to think they're just something special to me, for whatever reason, but not for others.

Thank You Scientist My Famed Disappearing Act is probably my second favorite off their debut, but really, so many of the tracks are just fantastic, excited for a second release from the band for sure. Feed The Horses, Blood on the Radio, Carnival, In The Company of Worms, aaagh.

And The Road Of Bones is probably the IQ song I'd have sent too since I've listened to all of one of their albums and that one's my favorite off the album. Great song too

Evermind... I like the cut of your jib sir, taking the Jesse The Body" Ventura approach - Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

And for you RJ... you're such a roulette whore, most of us have a ton of artists in our library that are from you. In fact, I have an idea... let's all cock-block RJ this round. Evermind, you send Silent Memorial; Doc, you send Speaking to Stones; Scrop... Mandroid Echostar; Seneca... Karnya; Big Hath... Thoughts Factory; I'll send InnerShine.

Evermind... I like the cut of your jib sir, taking the Jesse The Body" Ventura approach - Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

And for you RJ... you're such a roulette whore, most of us have a ton of artists in our library that are from you. In fact, I have an idea... let's all cock-block RJ this round. Evermind, you send Silent Memorial; Doc, you send Speaking to Stones; Scrop... Mandroid Echostar; Seneca... Karnya; Big Hath... Thoughts Factory; I'll send InnerShine.

I guess I'm taking an even bigger chance with my next one. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think about it, I've just checked some of the higher rated songs from the last two rounds, and I don't think I know any of that sort of music. So if this'll be my last round, so be it. I do think that you can handle some of my more obscure stuff.

I got all songs and the results will be in on Saturday once again. I also really appreciate everybody sending some information with the songs they're sending or an explanation why you're sending. My not writing anything back is not a lack of interest, as I do read everything. Based on what I've read, this is going to be a much more cohesive round than the last two, but there's at least one song that's going to stick out stylistically.

I got all songs and the results will be in on Saturday once again. I also really appreciate everybody sending some information with the songs they're sending or an explanation why you're sending. My not writing anything back is not a lack of interest, as I do read everything. Based on what I've read, this is going to be a much more cohesive round than the last two, but there's at least one song that's going to stick out stylistically.